Gerald was born on May 11, 1984 in Utrecht, The Netherlands and moved to the United States at a young age. He graduated from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) in the summer of 2002 and received a Bachelor's of Music from the Jazz Studies program at USC in the Fall of 2006.

Gerald grew up in a musical family (his father is bassist/composer John Clayton and his uncle saxophonist Jeff Clayton) and was exposed to a variety of musical styles from a very young age. He studied classical piano with Mrs. Linda Buck and jazz piano and composition with Shelley Berg, Kenny Barron and Billy Childs.
Read more...
 

RUDDER is the most progressive and fresh voice to hit the music scene since Medeski, Martin and Wood and The Bad Plus.

Rudder’s radical live music experience is the most exciting to hit the scene in a decade; while groups such as Medeski, Martin and Wood are considered their colleagues, the moment the listener catches their infectious energy, it’s clear that Rudder is the new standard streaking through the industry. Defunking the scene of its tired and sloshy vibe, they feed the intense craving for organic and phenomenal groove experience.
Read more...
 

Mark Wyand has become established as one of the most remarkable tenor sax players on the contemporary German jazz scene. The 34-year-old musician and composer plays with an exceptionally sensitive style that often borders on the meditative. Wyand was born in England but grew up in Germany, and moved to Berlin a few years ago. His highly acclaimed SonyBMG début "Eye To Eye" (2007) marked a revival of the jazz ballad, and with his new album Mark Wyand has gone one step further: Where his live appearances as bandleader are often extrovert and freethinking, his new studio recordings, produced jointly with Till Brönner, have an introverted and contemplative flavour.
Read more...
 

Till Brönner, trumpeter, singer, and one-of-a-kind European jazz personality, celebrates the joys and pains of life through the soulful music of Brazil in his most personal project yet, recorded on location in Rio de Janeiro with international guest stars Annie Lennox, Aimee Mann, Kurt, Elling, Milton Nascimento, Sérgio Mendes, and many others.Brönner has sold more records than any other jazz artist in his country’s history and has conquered audiences in many European territories as well as major Asian markets. The reasons are obvious: his honeyed tone and cool, lyrical playing are as seductive to the ear as Brönner is to the eye.
Read more...
 

Till Brönner is a master of his craft. Whatever subject he gets into always results in the highest quality and very often a small masterpiece for eternity. So it was only a matter of time before he devoted himself to one of the oldest and most popular musical themes - Christmas.

This eleventh long-player of the 36 year old multi-talent combines in an impressive and touching way the intimate with the universally applicable, the noble gesture with a love of detail. "It was important to me to celebrate my own vision of Christmas with 'The Christmas Album'," admits the trumpeter, singer and producer, who has won the German Echo award, the German Record Critics' Prize as well as numerous other awards.
Read more...
 

Jim Beard (piano and keyboards). Till Bronner (trumpet and vocals). Dennis Chambers (drums). Tim Lefebvre (bass). Chuck Loeb (guitar). Eric Marienthal (saxophone).

Over the years, touring musicians cross paths, share experiences (both on stage and off), and form deep bonds, both musical and personal. Often these relationships are enduring, and the friendships that develop last a lifetime. The members of REUNION have a collective relationship built on many such experiences.

As members of world famous bands, Jim Beard, Till Bronner, Dennis Chambers, Tim Lefebvre, Chuck Loeb, and Eric Marienthal, have worked together on timeless recordings and in performances on all the major stages across the international world of Jazz.
Read more...
 

Order at Amazon!

Born in Bishop Auckland in England, tenor saxophonist Mark Wyand is a permanent fixture in Germany’s jazz scene.
Wyand’s jazz talent, you see, spans all keys. With stylistic confidence, he is able to transcend from bebop to cool acid jazz. Or he devotes himself and his impressive playing to the many facets of the elegiacal jazz ballad.

Just he does now on "Eye To Eye", the 33-year old’s debut album with SonyBMG produced by trumpeter Till Brönner. Wyand has recorded 12 of his own compositions and a cover version of Elvis Presley´s "Love Me Tender" in a classic quartet arrangement. He his accompanied by Frank Woeste (piano), Pepe Berns (bass) and Sebastian Merk (drums). Till Brönner is also on the trumpet in the eloquent and elegant "Cape Town", a homage to South Africa’s cape town where Wyand has often frequented to give concerts with local celebrities such as Winston Mankuku and Basil Moses, as well as 3 other tracks.
Read more...
 

Order at Amazon!

It is not often in the world of art that something completely new comes along, something that has never previously existed in this form. In music, especially, all limits seem to have been exhausted long ago. More than other genres, this particular art form has shown an increasing tendency to degenerate to the level of an accessory. From classical music to techno, rapid consumability, collectibility and exchangeability have now become indications of quality. Records function like shares, rising and falling in the charts. Not many musicians have the stature to break out of this vicious circle and, by presenting new artistic ideas and forms, to create a counterpoint of lasting value.

A CD like Thomas Quasthoff’s jazz album does not come about overnight. Nor is it the result of a month’s or even six months’ work. Rather, it represents the culmination of a process that stretches back over a period of several years and starts with the artist defining his or her own personal position. Quasthoff has always felt a close affinity with jazz, and yet he first had to answer his own question as to what he could express through jazz that had not previously been conveyed in this form. Why else would he want to record a jazz album?
Read more...

Order at Amazon!

The passage of time is on Mark Murphy's mind a lot these days, as this album suggests. "At my age," he says, "you become boggled by how time affects your future, your past, and the present. It's tickin' away, and you can't do nothin' about it."

But time has been good to his voice: a rich, virile, attractively craggy bass-baritone, etched with the wisdom of a fifty-year journey. It's a sound that could have crept from the shadows of some smoky dive in a Robert Mitchum film noir. “Just listen to Mark Murphy, and the odds are in favor of your being provoked to extremes," declared the liner notes of his first LP, made for Decca in 1956. Murphy, the writer added, "is one of the great singers of our times."
Read more...

New Edition!
Order at Amazon!

„One of the internationally most successful German pop stars is a jazz musician.“ (Musikexpress, 12/05)
 
"Keeping it simple" is easier said than done. Simplicity goes a long way. It is reached by focusing on the essentials and therefore a goal most desired. Till Brönner has reached an impressive degree of maturity that now allows him for that much-coveted clarity of his new album OCEANA.
Read more...

Order at Amazon!

The music press has been praising his musical proficiency, his fans love his melodious, harmonic and romantic style: Till Brönner is Germany’s new hot jazz star. Despite his 34 years, the trumpeter has already played with stars such as Hildegard Knef, Pat Metheny, Bootsy Collins, Mousse T., Ray Brown, the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Hoffmann, Natalie Cole or No Angels, releasing 10 albums since 1994. His current recording, That Summer, came out in June last year, entering the top 15 of the German charts immediately. Brönner was also nominated in the category “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album” at this year’s Grammy Awards (for his collaboration on the album „Get Well Soon“ by Bob Brookmeyers New Art Orchestra). His first DVD, A Night in Berlin, is scheduled for release on September 30, 2005, recorded with other musician friends at the Berlin Teldex Studios over five days in April, with Grimme Award winner Volker Weicker in the director’s chair. The DVD will be released in a high-end format, in high definition quality and Dolby digital sound.
Read more...